Licences in Georgia: whoever fails to decide has granted

The most common question before setting up in Georgia is not what something costs but whether it is allowed at all. Georgian permission law answers that unusually clearly — with an exhaustive catalogue and a deeming rule that almost nobody uses in practice.

The catalogue is exhaustive, and the statute says so

Most legal systems scatter permission requirements across dozens of sectoral statutes. Georgia bundles them and fixes the bundling in law: the Law on Licences and Permits determines the exhaustive list of licence and permit types and forbids the introduction, by any other statute or sub-statutory act, of a permission requirement for an activity it does not cover.

The second paragraph closes the obvious workaround: an authority may not, by normative act, create a duty that in substance amounts to a permission regime or to a requirement of official consent.

Behind that sits a proportionality rule, also in the statute: regulation applies only where there is elevated danger to life, health, or state and public interests — and only where the licence can actually reduce that danger.

In practice this means the question whether a planned activity needs permission is a search within one document, not across a legal system. If you cannot find it there, it is as a rule not there.

Whoever fails to decide has granted

Both regimes carry a genuine deeming provision, and the wording leaves no room.

Feature	Licence	Permit
Decision deadline	30 days from application	20 days from application
Effect of the deadline passing	deemed granted	deemed granted
Type of procedure	public administrative procedure	simplified procedure
Document after the deadline	on demand, without delay	on demand, without delay

Where neither a grant nor a refusal issues within the deadline, the licence or permit is deemed granted. The applicant may then demand the document, and the authority must issue it without delay.

The rhythm of the licensing procedure is tighter than the 30 days suggest: three days for the formal completeness check, then prompt publication for public inspection, twenty days for third party submissions, and an oral hearing no later than seven days after that period ends.

The extension that carries its own deadline

The deeming rule is not absolute — it can be displaced, but only along a formalised route, and that route has a control deadline of its own which is the single most useful figure in the whole procedure for an applicant:

• The authority may extend to up to three months the decision to do so must issue within 15 days of the application
• The extension is ineffective if the applicant is not informed within 20 days counted from filing
• A further three-month extension requires a government decision
• For particularly hazardous categories, up to six months in total

What actually needs permission

The catalogues are unevenly distributed. Activity licences and use licences sit in two separate provisions, permits in a third. The deregulation trail is striking: in the list of activity licences whole blocks of numbers are marked “repealed” — by now roughly as many have been struck as remain in force.

For foreign entrepreneurs the financial and infrastructure sectors matter most:

Area	Examples
Financial sector	Banking and microbanking, non-bank deposit institution, life and non-life insurance, reinsurance, voluntary private pension provision
Capital markets	Brokers, exchange, central depository, asset manager, securities registrar
Energy	Generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, market operation, natural gas at every stage, oil refining and transport
Natural resources	Extraction of mineral resources, use of subsurface space, general oil and gas licence
Others	Private broadcasting, water supply, private security, tobacco production, radio frequencies, fisheries and game management

Permits cover, among others, construction, free trade points and customs warehouses, gambling including its online formats, inpatient medical facilities, pharmacies and pharmaceutical production, international road haulage and passenger transport, and outdoor advertising.

What is not in there

The counter-check is just as instructive. Advisory work — tax, legal, business — appears in none of the catalogues. Nor does trade or services in general. There is no licence for general or higher education either; educational institutions run through an authorisation and accreditation regime under the education statutes, that is, outside this law.

One point belongs here in fairness: the statute contains an extensive list of exceptions removing particular state bodies and certain institutions from its scope. Anyone checking whether an activity is permission-free should read those exceptions too, rather than searching the positive catalogue alone.

And it moves quickly: in 2026 alone the statute has taken several consolidated versions. A citation without a version reference goes stale here within weeks.

Who may carry out such a check in Georgia at all is covered in Who may advise you in Georgia; if you want the question settled bindingly, see Binding rulings in Georgia.

Licences and permits — frequently asked

How do I know whether my activity needs permission?

From the statute itself. It expressly provides that it sets out the types of licence and permit exhaustively, and forbids any other statute or sub-statutory act from introducing another for an activity it does not cover. If your activity is not in the catalogues, it needs no permission.

Can an authority create a permission requirement through the back door?

The statute expressly forbids it. An authority may not, by normative act, introduce a duty that in substance amounts to a licensing or permit regime, or to a requirement of official consent.

What happens if the authority lets the deadline pass?

The licence is deemed granted after 30 days, the permit after 20. The applicant may then demand the document, and the authority must issue it without delay.

Can the authority simply extend the deadline?

Only through a formalised route. It may extend to up to three months and must decide on that within 15 days. The extension is ineffective, however, if the applicant is not informed within 20 days of filing. A further extension requires a government decision.

Is my foreign licence valid in Georgia?

Not automatically. The statute provides that foreign licences may be recognised by international treaty or by law — but it does not itself establish that recognition.

This article is general information and does not constitute legal or tax advice. The Law on Licences and Permits is sourced in its Georgian text, publication 128, consolidated 25 June 2026. The figures given for the size of the catalogues are counted and should be read as orders of magnitude — the statute states no official position count. The authorisation regime under the education statutes was not examined. As at August 2026.